The Quickshift
- Chinese brands continue to flex their offerings in the entry-level segment.
- Brixton, a brand under the KSR Group, is getting ready to launch the Storr 500 adventure bike.
- It strikes me as a small-displacement copycat of the Husqvarna Norden 901.
If you take a look at the entry-level ADV segment today, you’ll notice that it’s on fire with a wide selection of enticing models from both mainstream and emerging brands. We’ve gotten up close and personal with machines like the Royal Enfield Himalayan and CFMoto 450MT, also known as the Ibex 450.
Nevertheless, things are by no means slowing down, as yet another Chinese brand is eager for a slice of this rapidly growing market. I’m talking about Brixton, a brand under the KSR Group. And while KSR is technically headquartered in Austria, it’s a well-known fact that it produces its motorcycles in China, leveraging on lower labor costs and economies of scale.
Dubbed the Storr 500, the bike is meant to evoke boldness and largeness, at least according to its name with Nordic etymological roots. Naturally, I can’t help but draw some parallels between the Storr and the real Nordic adventurer, Husqvarna’s Norden 901. It’s pretty obvious that Brixton borrowed a few pages from the Swedish manufacturer. So yeah, it’s one of the few adventure bikes in the market that blends retro styling with all-terrain capability.
The Storr 500 first made its debut at EICMA 2022, but since then, it pretty much fell off the radar. There’s a reason for this, though, as the KSR Group faced some financial issues and underwent court-supervised restructuring back in September 2023. Said restructuring was completed before the start of 2024, and it seems that the KSR Group seems to be in a better financial position as of this writing.
And just like most motorcycles developed and manufactured in China, the Brixton Storr 500 is set to make its debut on Chinese streets via a distribution agreement with the Gaokin Moto brand.
For reference, the Storr 500’s platform is pretty similar to plenty of other 500cc-class bikes from China. It’s rocking a 486cc parallel-twin that generates 47.6 horsepower and 29.4 pound-feet of torque—well within the territory of bikes like the new Royal Enfield Himalayan and Honda NX500.
Additionally, apart from the burly off-road-oriented model, the Storr 500 is set to be sold in a more road-focused variant. It ditches the wire-spoke wheels in favor of cast-aluminum wheels for folks looking for a bike to ride cross country with.
Perhaps even more interestingly, Brixton is reportedly working on a flagship adventure bike based on the Storr. This bigger, more premium model will be powered by the same 1,200cc parallel-twin engine in the Brixton Cromwell 1200, a bike we’ve talked about before, and one that seems to be a blatant copy of the Triumph Bonneville T120.
It’s clear that Chinese brands like Brixton are stepping up their game, making bigger, more premium, and more performance-oriented machines. What isn't clear is that a lot of these made-in-China bikes are, in one way or another, copying more established models from bigger, mainstream brands.
And while this is all pretty cool in the context of the rapidly growing market, I can’t help but wonder what’s next for these Chinese brands when the bubble finally bursts.
